Well I must have been tired last night, since I titled my post “I need a housekeepers.” Oops.

Anyway, today is going well. I’ve divided all the overwhelming household chores over the next few days and so far so good. I just can’t do those marathon cleaning days I used to do before Ella. So, today on my list: cleaning the downstairs floors. It may not sound like much, but most of our space is downstairs, and a lot of it it tile. So, I moved all the chairs and rugs, vacuumed everything, and then took my steam mop to the tile. I really should do that more often. I should at least get a swiffer wet jet to help keep the floor clean in between mopping. OK, I’ll stop boring you with my floors.

We leave Thursday for our annual fourth of July camping trip. It’s the same campground we visited a few weeks ago, but this time we’ll be there a little longer and a lot of Steve’s family will be there. Plus we’ll do the fun fourth of July festivities like the parade, and Ella will go to the fireworks for the first time. I can’t wait! Oh yeah, and a few of our good friends are coming to camp a few of the nights. Fun!

I just checked on Ella in her room. She’s been quiet in there since I layed her down for a nap over a half hour ago. But there she was sitting reading books with all the lights on, sans diaper! She’s really good about going down for naps, but I do always need to check on her diaper situation and to make sure she’s sleeping or you never know …

OK, off to watch a little House Hunters and put my feet up a little while!

It’s Sunday night and unfortunately the house is a wreck and dishes are piled up and I just CANNOT force myself to do it tonight. I’m so tired I just want to be totally lazy.

And I don’t think I can really blame the pregnancy either. I am going to be 14 weeks Tuesday, and I really haven’t felt the fatigue or nautiousness I felt in the beginning for a few weeks. I kinda just feel like a loser because I know people with more kids and more help than me that seem to keep their housework up! And I really have some catching up to do – floors, bathrooms … ugh. OK I just had to vent. I’ll make some lists and tackle it all the next few days.

We actually had a pretty low-key weekend. Fun family birthday party/father’s day party at Sara’s Saturday night. Beautiful weather. And the kids had a blast on a slip n slide. I do regret not getting asking someone to babysit Sunday. I’m really in need of a fun adults night. Movie and dinner. Sounds wonderful.

Ella and I did clean out the nursery a little this weekend. Luckily she’s already moved into her “big girl’s” room, so hopefully she won’t feel like she’s getting kicked out. Anyway, she went through all her little baby toys – rattles and tiny stuffed animals and blocks, and it was so cute. She really loved seeing it all and seemed to remember some of it. And when Steve came in the room she said “Daddy, I’m going to share my toys with the baby!” Very sweet. Then she wanted to sleep in her crib for her nap that day. So I let her. She looked so cute, and so big in her crib. It was kinda weird to think that may be her last time in that crib. She will not be the baby anymore soon.

Speaking of that baby though, she’s just crawled in bed with me, so I think it’s time to call it a night.

There are a couple Web sites that have caught my attention lately. So, I thought I’d do these bloggers a favor and pass on their sites to my 12 readers. (You’re all still there, right?)

My sister introduced me to this one about unnecessary quote marks. It’s hilarious. Apparently there is a large part of the population that totally do not understand when to use quote marks. And the blogger’s sarcastic comments just bring it all home.

Ok, then there is this mom blogger, who apparently is really well-known for her blogging – she’s been on all sorts of TV shows and interviews about her blog. But anyway, I like her because she’s funny and she has amazing taste and just had a really cute little baby named Marlo. So, if you want to check her out go here.

Then there is this other blogger girl who I discovered through an old favorite of mine, mighty maggie. This girl is really sweet and she is 39 weeks pregnant, and her last post was titled “I will be pregnant forever.” And I remember feeling exactly that way with Ella, so I totally sympathize with her right now. And now I find myself checking in on her to see if she’s had her baby – check her out here.

So yeah, you may notice I’ve got babies on my mind a little bit lately. So, it’s probably time I fill you all in on some other things in my life that I haven’t been blogging about. A few months back I got this …

and so sometime around Christmas (due date 12/28) Ella is going to be a big sister. We’re very excited. And there will be plenty more to come on that subject, including how at 13 weeks I already don’t fit into my pants and how Ella wants to name this new baby Cowboy Toots.

It has seemed pretty busy since we returned from our trip. With work on Thursday, Friday, a trip to the zoo Saturday, work Saturday night, shopping with my mom Sunday … last week went quickly! Then Monday Ella and I took a trip to see my grandmother, then prepared for a visit to my sister’s place. We drove the two hours to Indy to stay with my sister for a quick visit. She has summers off and I’m working part time so why not take advantage of it?!

Anyway, traveling 2 hours with Ella by myself still makes me a little nervous. I mean, I’m not worried about something really horrible happening – just wandering if it will be a long cranky car ride or if she will ever get to sleep at night … But thanks to the good old travel DVD player, Ella was so happy to watch Madagascar on the trip down. And yes, she did have trouble going to sleep. She was up until 10:30 or so, but I can’t blame her – being in a new place and all. And it wasn’t like she was being bad, ripping the place apart or something.

So we had a really nice time! Em had a great pizza waiting for us when we arrived. And she fixed some excellent sandwiches and soup for us the next day. It’s fun being the guest. As much as we have company stay with us, we really don’t ever stay at anyone else’s house, and hey – it’s nice being the guest!

We also checked out the pool at Em’s apartment and they had a kiddie pool, which was AWESOME. Ella could run and splash in the shallow water while I sat poolside and relaxed while I watched her. Now that’s good stuff.

So, I’ve been searching for a kiddie pool for the yard ever since. We have a tiny, $3 baby pool that we have really enjoyed, but I’m thinking something bigger. Something I can possibly fit in. If I’m going to sit outside and watch Ella in 90 degree weather I’m going to need to get cooled down.

I’ve already looked at Wal-mart, Meijer and Sam’s Club and wow, they make a lot of kiddie pools. With slides and sprinklers and animals and palm trees … And there was a huge one at Sam’s Club. And it was really tempting to get. But it’s so big, I don’t think you would dump it out after each use. Therefore, there would be a pool of water sitting in our backyard. And this scares me. Although it would be plenty shallow enough for Ella to stand in … the safety hazards of it just still scare the life out of me. So, anyway, I just found this good, medium-sized pool for like $15 at Target. No shipping. And it will arrive in a day. Sold!

About Us

Erin
Me. Blogger. Formerly lived carefree life of eating out, staying out late, traveling and whatever else I wanted. Now mostly chase around two kids, cook, clean and work as graphic artist.

Stephen
Wonderful web guru husband who prepared this site for me. He's even trying to help to do dishes more around the house. Good man. I met him at a party in college in 1998 and he still hasn’t gone home.

Ella
Unbelievably cute daughter who's been running the show at our house since March of 2007.